Posted tagged ‘tournaments’

Last weekend the Profession & Amateur Pinball Association (i.e. PAPA) held their 13th annual World Pinball Championships and out of 406 players, seven stood victorious in their separate division. That includes the youngest Class B player in PAPA’s history, 12-year old Joshua Henderson from Plainfield, IL(pictured). Josh was ranked as the 51st top player in the world after an IFPA tournament in May and now he can add this win (along with a $3,500 cash prize) to his list of accomplishments. They have all of the scoring tables and winners listed on the PAPA website but so far media from the event is fairly sparse. The cash prizes they had available were quite good – the 1st place winner from the A division, Keith Elwin walked away with the title World Pinball Champion and $10,000 in cash. I know that there is a lot of focus on competitive video gaming around the world these days but pinball certainly can’t be ignored as it’s taken just as seriously.

Hot on the tails of the 2010 DDR US Championship announcement comes another tournament that already has established it’s legs as an annual event with 2010 as the third year the event will be taking place. The Big Buck World Championships are now going through their qualifier phase as well, where players can compete on any online-enabled Big Buck Safari or Big Buck Hunter Pro machine. The grand prize you’ll be aiming for if you participate: $10,000. According to the BBS official website, here is what the top players of the regionals can expect:

It all starts with a revamped Online Qualifying Tournament that runs August 1st – 29th. The top 16 in each region will be invited to Chicago for our first-ever 2-day World Championship Weekend on October 1st and 2nd.

All four of the Regional Finals will be held on October 1st followed by the 2010 World Championship on October 2nd. If you’ve never attended the World Championship, you owe it to yourself to make this your first. Beyond the Big Buck games, the tournament, the Big Buck Girls, and the huge prizes, this event is created with you, our players, in mind.

It’s a huge party that allows players from across the country to meet, eat, and drink. Whether you win or lose, you will not walk away from the weekend disappointed.

And let’s not forget that $10,000 top prize! You can start your quest for it at your nearest online game this August.

Last year, Konami held tournaments across the US to find the best DDR player in the US. Those tournaments didn’t happen without some headaches but with those lessons learned, Konami is taking a crack at it again with the 2010 DDR Championships, which already began last month starting on the 15th. At the moment they are going through the Round One Qualifier which ends on September 30th. Konami has a page setup for the championships, where locations with a DDR (I assume that it has to be a particular version however) can sign up to be a part of the Round One Qualifiers; Round Two and Three locations haven’t been announced yet.

I have to apologize for forgetting about EVO – it’s only the world’s greatest tournament for fighting games out there – but better late than never so here we go. If you want to catch the tournament live, you can click here. A schedule is here, where they will end the night with some Street Fighter and players will get a look at Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. I can partially say that I forgot about the tournament as it’s pretty console heavy but seeing how every arcade fighter out there is being brought to consoles, it’s not terribly surprising. Too bad KOFXIII won’t be there as that comes out tomorrow in Japan, that certainly would have made for a nice surprise to players there, even if most of them prefer Street Fighter and Tekken.

UPDATE: Chris Ainsworth is there and has been snapping some pictures, a couple of which I’ll share here, the rest you can find by clicking on these links: Link 1 / Link 2

So Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is being promoted for use with arcade sticks yet there is no actual arcade version of the game in sight. Oh well.

If you are a competitive arcade gamer then this announcement should give you plenty of time to prepare for a tournament coming up this December, called World Record Weekend II. The event will be held at the Challenge Arcade in Wyomissing, PA, Dec. 3rd-5th. You might recall that Challenge Arcade was the first arcade location that Stride Gum helped out prior to announcing their Save The Arcades campaign.

Whether any prizes will be given away wasn’t hinted at in the release but you’ll be able to compete on any of the games they have at the store. You can even bring your own arcade machine if you wish (and register properly ahead of time). By registering now to compete on a particular game in their line-up, guarantees that the game will be there for the competition. They also will have more to compete on than just arcade games, with partner Too Many Games bringing home console and handheld systems to the event to compete on as well. For more details, check out the press release below or visit Challenge Arcade’s website.

If you are a competitive arcade gamer then this announcement should give you plenty of time to prepare for a tournament coming up this December, called World Record Weekend II. The event will be held at the Challenge Arcade in Wyomissing, PA, Dec. 3rd-5th. You might recall that Challenge Arcade was the first arcade location that Stride Gum helped out prior to announcing their Save The Arcades campaign.

Whether any prizes will be given away wasn’t hinted at in the release but you’ll be able to compete on any of the games they have at the store. You can even bring your own arcade machine if you wish (and register properly ahead of time). By registering now to compete on a particular game in their line-up, guarantees that the game will be there for the competition. They also will have more to compete on than just arcade games, with partner Too Many Games bringing home console and handheld systems to the event to compete on as well. For more details, check out the press release below or visit Challenge Arcade’s website.

Last year an arcade in Portland known as Ground Kontrol hosted a large pinball tournament called Pinbrawl and by all accounts, it was a big success. So with one successful tournament of this caliber under their belts, they are preparing for a second Pinbrawl, which has been announced for April 18th. The grand prize that pinball wizards will be competing for: a full-sized Williams’ “Johnny Mnemonic” pinball machine. For only $20 admission as a competitor (for spectators it’s free) that’s a great deal – if you happen to beat out the possible 127 others who will show up. More juicy details can be found in the press release after the break.